


Side Effects

by The_Sickfic_Sideblog



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Insomnia, PMS, period
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-18
Updated: 2017-08-18
Packaged: 2018-12-16 11:36:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 783
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11827920
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Sickfic_Sideblog/pseuds/The_Sickfic_Sideblog
Summary: Pidge has some side effects to her biology. But they're not all bad.





	Side Effects

In a way, Pidge considered herself lucky. When the month rolled over, she didn’t break out in terrible acne, her appetite didn’t change, and most of her body didn’t ache too badly. Her uterus was another problem, but with Keith now learning to do pressure points correctly, the cramps were becoming less and less of a problem as well. It became manageable, she was able to function both as a person and as a paladin of Voltron with almost no trouble.

Almost.

One of the symptoms she always forgot about was the trouble with sleeping. Night after night she would be plagued with insomnia, paired with the feeling of being exhausted but never being able to sleep. Caffeine and sleeping pills were always able to keep her back on track on Earth, but now that she was on the castleship? There were no such commodities.

And so Katie Holt found herself staring at the ceiling again, debating on which god to pray to for sleep. Maybe she could sacrifice her latest project to some sleep god? Or maybe an Altean goddess she’d never heard of. Was she technically in their domain now? Who knows.

I suppose I could at least be working on something… she thought, sitting up out of bed and reaching for her computer, I could finally finish programming another Rover. But when she pushed on her glasses and stared at the seemingly never-ending lines of code, her mind blanked. Or not. She closed her laptop, pulled on warm socks and a sweatshirt, and exited her room. Time for her monthly roam across the castle.

She wandered past all the rooms of her fellow paladins, most of which were sleeping soundly and enjoying their dreams. She was so jealous, she’d give anything just to be able to nap. She peered in the training rooms, robots deactivated and floor pristine until Keith came along and scuffed it up with his boots again. She shuffled past the kitchen, empty of Hunk and food goo, until she finally reached the deck of the castleship. A quick look at the buttons pointed her in the right direction, and she dimmed the subtle floor lights.

Above her, the sky lit up. Stars brightened and twinkled, ranging colors from red to blue as the hovered in the void. Pidge sat down at Allura’s control console, cringing as her stomach ached at being moved so much. But it was gone soon enough, and she was able to enjoy the sky again.

“This is the only part of space that’s better than Earth…” she muttered to herself, “The view is incredible.”

After hours of staring and trying to find constellations that looked familiar, the stars began to blur and fuzz. Her eyelids finally felt heavy, and Pidge was asleep before she could recognize that she was falling asleep.

She was woken up by the pilot of the ship, still dressed in her nightgown and hair a complete mess. “Pidge? What are you doing on the deck? It’s about time for you paladins to wake up, at least based on Earth time.”

Pidge moaned and rubbed her eyes, and Allura came into focus. Perhaps a midnight stroll was not the best idea. “Couldn’t sleep last night, so I just looked at the stars for a while.”

“When did you end up sleeping?”

“Um…I’m not sure.”

Pidge went to stretch and found her body was thoroughly punishing her for sleeping on the hard floor. She hissed when her back creaked, threatening to crack in half if she didn’t get to a bed.

Allura smiled in sympathy. “That’s how it feels to tumble out of a healing pod. Come on, let’s get you back to bed.”

As the two ladies walked back to the rooms, Pidge let some sleepy, unfiltered words slip out of her mouth.

“Allura, do you think you could take us back to Earth one day? I know we’re all kind of on the ‘we have no home’ train, but maybe once all of this is over?”

The princess didn’t say much for a while. “…I think we can arrange that.”

“Even though it’s kind of disrespectful because you and Coran don’t have a home anymore?”

She paused again, this time at the bedroom doorway. “It’s not disrespectful, Pidge. I want to go home too. I just…can’t.”

“You know you’ve always got a home with us, right?”

Pidge saw Allura’s smile and knew she said the right thing. There were a lot of side effects to having her period, the insomnia being one of them. But another was the emotional changes, and while most of them had her feeling grumpy, this one was perfect for the moment.


End file.
